Obama Praises Netanyahu's 'Good Faith' in Talks with Palestinians
U.S. President Barack Obama thanked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday for his "courage" in "good faith" negotiations with the Palestinians on final status issues.
"I commended him for entering into good faith negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. I appreciate the prime minister's courage in being willing to step forward."
The talks were relaunched in late July after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spent months shuttling back and forth to bring the two sides back to the table.
But few details have leaked after seven rounds of discussions, owing to Kerry's call for a strict news blackout to avoid poisoning the atmosphere.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas warned the United Nations last week that the talks offered the "last chance" for peace.
Netanyahu is expected to make his own address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.
30 September 2013, 22:29
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I think they already have. I don't think Obama would have backed away from his threat against Syria (designed to distract the world from the Egyptian coup, in my opinion) if the middle ranks of the mobilized Jewish pro-Israel constituency had not turned its back on its erstwhile leaders in AIPAC. The only organized national political force in the US is the pro-Israel movement, but now that movement is splitting and perhaps shattering. So events are becoming unpredictable, but the direction of events is towards democracy and human rights, away from racism and genocide, which is to say, away from the Jewish state in Palestine. The question is how peacefully we can move on.
